Tefi Pessoa just gets it — Bringing her Colombian and Brazilian authenticity to her new talk show

I think it's important to be young and make mistakes. However, I was reckless, and at the end of the day I am a big sister to my real-life siblings so I do feel like I carry around that lens a lot. I don't want to, just because I suffered, it doesn't mean that other people should suffer. 

So if there's anything I can do from my lessons learned that would help other people I'm going to share that, because dating is a very harsh mirror. Any way I can make it easier for somebody I will post it and I'm proud of the lessons I've learned.

I grew up in Miami so it's the way that I talk, is how I would talk with my friends and family. For 22 years before I left Miami every person who fed me, who took care of me, who was there for me was a Latin person, so I feel like the way that Latin people speak, it is "for community." 

It's the idea of having things as an inside joke, my inside joke is your inside joke, that's how I face the world. I face the world like I'm part of it, and I hope the world wants to get to know me too, and that's a very Latin perspective.

I think being from Latin America, we might not be from the same country but we all came to this country for similar reasons, whether it is opportunities, safety, a fresh start, or whatever it may be, I feel there's that underlying language of "I'm so happy you made it here, I'm so happy you're here with us."

When I watch TV and I see the way they talk about Latinos; You could never understand the loneliness of, what my parents describe as being an immigrant in this country, my grandparents, you would never understand leaving everything you knew to come to this new country and then the joy of finding people who understand. 

That's really what it is. I know you in a blood way, I don't have to ever have met you before, but I know you and we are connected, and we are all in this together.

There are events that I go to, where I'm the only Latin person there, and coming from Miami where there were more Miguels than Michaels that's crazy to me. 

I feel like it is my responsibility to fill up every room with as much Latin joy as possible. I'm first generation, I can be both, I can be Latin and American, and if I'm gonna be both I want you to know it and I want other people who look like me, who talk like me, who speak Spanish, and who don't speak Spanish, to know that we have the right to dream. 

We want provide for our families, and we wanna make our families proud but you have permission to dream.

Today's generation is very lucky because growing up we had very limited mainstream Latin artists make it to American radio, so if you ask my mom, my dad, or my grandparents, what they listened to in the eighties, it's Madonna.

Today people can say, 'I listened to Bad Bunny when I was a teenager.' I had Madonna, I had Pat Benatar, I had Fleetwood Mac, so that's something that I wish people understood; My pop culture lens is from an immigrant perspective of people who only listened to American music.

I remember coming to New York one day and seeing Shakira's [album] 'Laundry Service' in Times Square y yo casi me muero. I was like, 'They know about Shakira?' 

Growing up in pop culture, there's always gonna be deep nostalgia for American pop culture, but now seeing Latin Artists enter mainstream media, and even be part of tabloids is crazy because before we had Paris, Britney, and Lindsay. It's really jarring, really special, and shocking in the best way.

From Miami, being ninety-five degrees and my family sitting down and eating ajiaco every Sunday, and then in Bogotá I remember going to parks and seeing people do Tai Chi, and seeing Olympians practice running. 

Also, I come from a family where if you don't have fresh juice every day you're crazy, my mom is like 'No tiene lulo?' and I'm like 'We're in Brooklyn what are you talking about.'

In New York, I got to be my own person. I'll always be my mother's daughter but I got to choose who I wanted to be, and that was really freeing because when I got to choose who I wanted to be I still chose "Miami me," and that was important for me to feel and know.

Todo! Yeah of course, even when we fight. I was a very lost person and I just really appreciate the opportunity in this lifetime to make my family proud of me, that's really important to me.

I hope it feels intimate in a way where you feel like you know us, the whole cast, and I hope that people feel like we are being real and authentic because none of it was really scripted. 

Those are real conversations and our real thoughts and feelings, and I hope people can feel that.

Yo casi me muero! I couldn't believe it. I still feel it's fake like it's not really happening. There was finally a moment where, as a content creator, there are people who want to remain on your phone screen and I am a person who wants to be on every screen, so I think that was a moment where I was like 'Oh my god I think I'm doing it, this is working.' Seeing your hard work pay off.

There are so many moments where things get hard, or you wake up early and you show up and things don't go as planned, and things change, and people change, and your and friends change, and work changes, and your team changes, and for the first time in a long time I got to exhale and say 'This is working,' and that's a feeling that I've only had very few times in my life, it felt like things coming into place.

I'm manifesting longevity in this career, and I know the show is called 'Influenced,' but I'm manifesting real influence.

If it's something that aligns with my messaging where it feels like I can be myself, and I can add humor and I can be real about it. It's so important for contact creators not to have a niche, I don't believe human beings should have niches, I like a lot of things.

Brasilero, me fascina el guaraná, and from Colombia, I love el chocolate jet.

Carlos Vives! That was one of my favorite concerts with my family [in Miami], and he was wearing these little denim shorts. I'll never forget it.

 Let's do better.

I'm on my JLo. We're shining, the legs are moisturized, I have my body glow on, my hair is blown out, and I'm wearing my wedges.

I'm listening to 'Whatever She Wants' by Bryson Tiller.